Stop Diminishing Your Sensitivities (You’ll Improve Your Creativity)
Tell me if this sounds familiar,
For most of your life, you were taught to hide your emotions.
Shamed for showing emotions and feelings because it was deemed a weakness.
Sensitivity is not a burden. Surrender to your creative voice.
Sensitivity and creativity want to spark conversation. Creativity blocks happen, not in the absence of emotion but in the poignant act of suppression. An internal conflict that echoes in every brush stroke, every pen mark or every word, as you wrestle with becoming the creator and CEO of your creative business.
The CEO strives for success, hitting deadlines, meeting goals, and taking action, while the highly sensitive creator yearns to master their craft, dream, and use their emotions to tell a story.
It doesn’t feel natural to tap into your intuition and creativity when you’ve got bills to pay. It feels like you should use your head more than your heart. Striking a balance between the two can be challenging, especially when societal pressures dictate and reward you for using your head more than your heart.
“A work of art which isn’t based on feeling isn’t art at all.”
— Paul Cézanne
From “Whispers of The Wild” Collection
I’ve observed, within myself as a creative, that with particular pieces of art, I seem to tense up when I put too much pressure on myself to make it perfect. Determined to produce a masterpiece on the very first iteration. To live up to other people’s expectations. Or pressured to make money from the first piece I create.
When the creativity stakes are higher, and the creations mean more, I freeze.
I realised that no one is putting that pressure on my creativity, it’s me.
Then judgements show up.
Scared of what other people may say.
Riddled with beliefs of worry and fear of not being good enough.
“What if my audience hates what I’m creating?”
It’s scary to think something that is sacred to you, could be disliked by other people. That’s the burden that all creatives have. We are not meant to be liked by everyone.
If you let these thoughts pollute your work, you run the risk of quitting altogether, that’s worse.
I’ve recently realised it’s because:
You have to reveal your sensitivities as a creative.
Your creations are an expression of yourself.
Creativity doesn’t like structure and rules. Creativity wants to live outside the box. Creativity wants to be nurtured.
There’s a meaning behind everything I do, sometimes the meaning is more surface level (those creative pieces I have no problems sharing with the world). On the other hand, there’s art that hurts. They bring up past wounds that I’ve previously thought I’d dealt with.
But, isn't that the beauty of creating? Encouraging you to process the information completely differently than you have previously. Revisiting wounds from new perspectives, exploring fresh feelings and surrendering to your creative voice that captures your newfound innocence, is not only courageous, it’s beautiful.
From “Whispers of The Wild” Collection
How To Embrace Your Sensitivities To Increase Creativity:
Creativity flourishes when you conscientiously foster and explore emotive conversations within the vast landscapes of your inner world.
Here are 4 steps that will nurture these emotive conversations and will become an integral part of your creative process:
Step 1: Remove Judgments (Yours And Others)
Awareness is key. The ability to know when you are judging yourself and dismantle belief systems that label sensitivity as a negative trait. Your sensitivities are not a weakness but a unique strength.
At the end of the day, you still have control of how much vulnerability you share with the world, but knowing it’s come from a place that is raw and real allows your art to speak for itself. It's a beautiful story weaving in between the highs and lows, battling the cold, painful darkness to find a pathway to the hope-filled empowering light that balances out the yin and yang of all creation.
Creating is about riding the waves of uncertainty to find clarity, the creative journey never makes sense but trust yourself to poetically transform your art into its own magical standalone story.
What once was your story, is now part of something greater. The interpretations, perspectives, and new peering eyes from strangers bring to life a new creative story, one with multiple meanings. Creating beautiful pieces of artwork is meant to move people in different ways.
It’s not your job, as the creative, to control the new narrative. Detach from the outcomes.
“Art is so subjective, it means something different to every person. The important thing for it to do is to touch on the senses and emotions.”
— Michelle Malone
Step 2: Start Writing/Drawing Your Emotions (Start A Journal, Art Journal Or A Dream Journal)
Carry a notebook around with you at all times. You’ll never know when a feeling, thought or creative inspiration hits.
Use the journal to build a stronger bond with your emotions, feelings and thoughts so that you can use them to make your creative projects shine.
You can use your journal in many ways:
Brainstorming and Idea Generation: Jot down any ideas that come to mind, no matter how wild or unrefined.
Daily Reflection: Write about your accomplishments, challenges, and any insights gained.
Inspiration Log: Document quotes, images, or experiences that evoke emotions or spark creative ideas.
Goal Setting: Break goals down into smaller, manageable tasks. Regularly revisit and update your goals, celebrating achievements and adjusting as needed.
Visual Journaling: Incorporate visual elements into your journal. Include sketches, doodles, or collages that complement your written thoughts.
Gratitude Journaling: Write about aspects of your creative practice that you're grateful for. Focusing on gratitude can enhance your overall well-being and creativity.
Free Writing: Allow your thoughts to flow without worrying about structure or coherence. This can help unlock creative ideas buried in your subconscious.
Journaling helps you navigate your thoughts, feelings and emotions in a safe space to enhance the conversations between you and your creative process. Questions are a powerful tool to get answers you never knew you needed.
Step 3: Tap Into Your Intuition
You have to learn to build self-trust with your creative projects. Trust your instincts and try to avoid overthinking. You can do this by:
-Mindfulness practises such as meditation, and breath work throughout the day to quieten the mind.
-Making time for experimenting and play, encourage your intuition to guide your creative decisions.
-Reflect on your creative process
-Silence and solitude (paired with time in nature). You can become inspired by the world. Nature can ground the energy that surrounds you. Silence helps to reflect.
Intuition is your most powerful gift, tapping into it often will allow for a stronger connection between you and your inner self. It’ll be your guide through creative projects and knowing your intuition is there to support you, you can’t go wrong.
Step 4: Compartmentalise Your Tasks
Your creativity time should be fun and free.
Creativity needs a nurturing, safe environment, so you feel confident leading with your heart (without much input from your thoughts).
Editing and publishing: need an analytical mind to solve problems (which can be too judgemental for your heart).
If you separate these two tasks you’ll increase your creativity and reduce creative blocks, your mind won’t be standing in your way.
You can separate these tasks by:
Have specific days where you create and edit.
or
Time block tasks- morning for creativity, afternoon for editing/publishing/finalisation tasks.
Multitasking is a myth. Your creative productivity will skyrocket because you’re not constantly judging your work as you go along. You’re free to go down any route your creative path decides. Creative blocks don’t live in minds that aren’t judgemental.
Start Your Emotive Conversations To Enhance Creativity
Creating a conversation with my artwork and writing before looking at the work analytically has helped my creativity sessions. I’m less judgemental through the trial and error stages and I’ve experienced less creative block because of it. The blank canvas (or blank paper) syndrome has gone because I’ve filled up my sketchbook with new ideas or I’ve freely written what conversations I want to have with myself to embrace and nurture my inner being and include her on this exciting creative adventure.
Incorporate these into your daily routine and you’ll build a stronger relationship with your emotions so you can utilise them for creative projects:
-Silence
-Journaling
-Mindfulness
-Time in nature
-Separate creativity tasks from everything else
From “Whispers of The Wild” Collection
If you work with your emotions, rather than try to hide them, you’ll unlock raw creativity that’s authentically you. You're more likely to see that meaningful project through to the end because it’s originally from your heart.
-Emily
